Demo Day goes virtual for Venture Center, ICBA accelerator

The Independent Community Bankers of America and The Venture Center, in partnership with the state of Arkansas, on Wednesday (April 8) hosted the ICBA ThinkTECH Accelerator Virtual Demo Day, the culminating event of the program’s second cohort.

“This is a special day for me … hearing these pitches,” U.S. Rep. French Hill (R-Little Rock) said. “What a wonderful partnership it has been between our city and state and the business community.”

The nine fintech companies participating in the 12-week bootcamp demonstrated their accelerated solutions for bankers, investors and community leaders. In addition, all are offering community banks free services, deferred payments, or accelerated deployments of their digital products to support community banks amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

This year’s companies include:

·       Finscend, Tel Aviv, Israel

·       Fintel Connect, Vancouver, B.C.

·       Finzly, Charlotte, N.C.

·       FI Works, Little Rock, Ark.

·       Fraud.net, New York, N.Y.

·       Griffin Technologies, Kansas City, Kan.

·       Hexanika, New York, NY and Pune, India

·       Lendsmart, Hoboken, N.J.

·       Wallit, Portland, Maine

The ICBA ThinkTECH Accelerator has been successful in fostering community bank-fintech collaborations that solve real-world challenges while enhancing customer experiences. After completing the 12-week bootcamp, the nine selected companies are primed to usher innovation in areas including marketing, fraud prevention, data analytic and mortgage lending.

ICBA Senior Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer Charles Potts said there has been an effort to find and explore mission-driven innovations. Finding ways to deal with lending, data analytics, fraud, and customer acquisition will be key to aiding the banking industry in the coming years, he added.

Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr. said the businesses’ world after the COVID-19 pandemic is over will be an environment of restarting and resetting. There’s no way how to tell how that rebuild will move forward, but he knows one thing – the more entrepreneurs the better.

“Being a former banker this is a special day for me,” Scott said.

You can watch the Demo Day presentations in the video below.